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Barry Castagnola (actor, writer, director, producer and stand-up comedian), I knew his name as many of the UK comedians I listen to/watch mention him but I had never seen anything of his act - great warm up for Greg Davies, top work Barry. Greg Davies was exactly what I wanted from him, except two things. We all know he's extremely tall but without some context you just couldn't tell, I needed Barry to stand next to him, just for a second :) I think Greg Davies is best when he has someone to (inappropriately) bounce off, be that Alex Horne on Taskmaster or even with his two chums in We Are Klang . When he goes off script he is fantastic, "chicken noises" that made his giggle and tickled his own funny bone are the moments when Greg Davies shines and there's no-one better at it. "Not finished." though, wow! :) Here's a few from the photo album  of our evening in Hamer Hall (Melbourne), even though we were NOT ALLOWED to take photographs :)         ...

Linux is quite the story of community, self reflection, and how a one-person 'hobby' became the bedrock upon which nearly all computing stands upon. Just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu Mis-quote of the last 35 years? :) Where you'll find Linux being the underlying operating system: Laptops / Desktops, e.g. Ubuntu Thin clients, e.g. Chromebooks Mobile, e.g. Android Embedded systems, e.g. Tesla cars infotainment system Servers, e.g. your file & print servers Web servers / services, e.g. Meta (Facebook), Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and Uber Routers, e.g. the one you use at home Supercomputers, e.g. all of them Aviation, e.g. United, Delta, Qantas, Emirates, Virgin America, Aeromexico, and Air New Zealand  Space, e.g. RocketLab, and the Ingenuity Helicopter on Mars tbh, the only sphere of life that isn't built upon Linux is business & home laptops where Microsoft still dominates. Then again, they are just used to run a browser eh ;) Linux ...

There are many nuggets of wisdom from, mostly, dead people out there on the World Wide Web and much of it washes over me with a silent, "Meh". Every now and again though something clicks and, as this is my blog, I'm gonna share them with you - hopefully something within makes you ponder life and how it's going for you. Against the Cartesian Myth of Work/Life Balance: André Gregory’s Extraordinary Letter to Richard Avedon about the Nature of Creativity by Maria Popova, November 11, 2025 You chose work. I have chosen the life. The work and the life. At least I have done so in the last 30 years. Doesn’t the work on the self inform the Work? When we inch closer to ourselves, to who we originally were, who we’re meant to be, doesn’t that serve the work, doesn’t it connect us more deeply to others? Isn’t there value in spreading laughter, love, and compassion to the people around us? … The work changes the life, and the life changes the work. The Continuous Creative Act of ...

1985 and I was called by GlosCat to see if I'd like to interview for their computer course. Seeing as I had failed one or two A Levels I was down for a visit into England [ full story ]. The final year I lived with a wonderful family in Gloucester and spent a quiet time. I failed the final exam due to the forecasting subject but didn't care as St Ivel had already offered a full-time position. As far as I was concerned the point of the whole college malarkey was to get a job , it had done that by the 2nd year and so the final year was a bit of a waste of my time tbh. I'm sure I could've worked harder and become ...become, um ...something else, but I was extremely happy where I was. If you're doing something that has a defined time period, or a predetermined set of tasks, and you discover whilst working through it that you've met your own goal, then it has done the job and, if you want to, stop. Be aware, stopping without completing can sometimes have a downside, ...

When the audience sees something that is handmade [..]. They go, "Ah, that's been built by a human, just like me. That is amazing. I know that I couldn't have done that. Wow, that's incredible." So, there's an incredible wow factor. Now, there is no doubt that the digital effect is equal if not more significant in the craftsmanship of the people doing it. [..] But I think the audience in their minds subliminally just goes, "Oh, digital effect ... computer button. Someone pushed a button that did that."

The 404 page (the page you get when a website can't find what you think is there, here's mine ) on Apple's website is most excellent, a fully functional iPod :) https://music.apple.com/404

Updated: 29th October, 2026 at 6pm (ACST) Yay, top work Andrew , he found it on page 95 in the following PDF file : (if the embedded version disappears then I have it saved and available here ) Again, well done Andrew for finding it AND to Labour NZ to sticking to their promise of repealing that Act. I wonder if it will happen within 100 days, I will keep watching. We all fought very hard to stop the Regulatory Standards Bill, David Seymour, Act and National's neolibertarian attack on the DNA of Aotearoa New Zealand . Regulatory Standards Bill has now past and will be made Law. Votes against the Regulatory Standards Bill have come from opposition parties (Labour, Greens, and Te Pāti Māori) and the public, with over 98% of public submissions opposing it. $6,000,000 spent of our tax payers money for us to say No and they still just go ahead and do it.  This coalition Government has ignored the people of Aotearoa New Zealand. All National, Act and NZ First MPs said yes. ...

If there's one website I direct readers to the most it's Wikipedia. If you are under the misconception that it's just a website that contains falsehoods, bias, and mistakes then let me put you right by directing you to the Wikipedia Reliability of Wikipedia page: The reliability of Wikipedia and its volunteer-driven and community-regulated editing model, particularly its English-language edition, has been questioned and tested. Wikipedia is written and edited by volunteer editors (known as Wikipedians) who generate online content with the editorial oversight of other volunteer editors via community-generated policies and guidelines. The reliability of the project has been tested statistically through comparative review, analysis of the historical patterns, and strengths and weaknesses inherent in its editing process. The online encyclopedia has been criticized for its factual unreliability, principally regarding its content, presentation, and editorial processes. Studies a...

Many years ago, on our first visit to AoNZ, Jude and I did a boogie board 'swim' through the rapids of Shotover River near Queenstown, well it's what one does when you're a backpacker. It was loads of fun and as we coughed, laughed, and spluttered our way out upon the bank we lay on our backs all chatting about how absolutely cool it to ride / shoot down. The tour company were selling photos that they had taken from bank - remember this is decades before phone cameras - "Um, how much are they? Ah, um, no we'll skip it thanks." We were on a budget and thought we couldn't afford it. Wrong!!! What we couldn't afford was to lose those special memories, a record of the wonderful time we had, one that we never did ever again. I have always remembered that missed opportunity and now, whenever something comes up I always do it, I always take it, experiences are the spark of life , kairos are the moments to seek out and grasp on to. Money, even when it fee...

We all know the issues with taking the earth, an  oblate spheroid , and trying to flatten it out onto a piece of paper so we can dump the globes and take maps on our ships. If a map is on a piece of paper or a computer screen, it has to be projected. This is because the Earth is round and paper and screens are flat. There are a lot of ways that use mathematics to make map projections . The one we see the most is the Mercator projection The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection which is widely used in cartography today. It was developed by Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It is not a physical projection, and cannot be constructed using geometric tools. On a small scale, geometric shapes can be moved around the map, without distorting them (this property is known as conformity). As a downside, the scale of the shape and the direction of lines may change when shapes are moved. For example, Africa is actually 15 times larger than Greenland, but on this map projection they ...

Mushrooms! I love mushrooms, all types of mushrooms, and a big breakfast is never ever complete without them. Fact! Until my mid-teens I hated mushrooms, or so I thought. I told my parents, "No thanks, I don't like mushrooms" for as long as I could remember. One day, around the age 14, I wondered to myself, "What do mushrooms actually taste like?", and so I asked for one on my plate. In it went and BAM! wow, what a glorious taste, wowsers mushrooms are amazing. I've had similar experiences with many foods (yes, even fish) and drinks over the years. I have tried everything offered and mostly it's a pleasant surprise, not always and I still can recall the burn rubber taste of a very experimental Garage Project beer. "What do you think about going to Australia with me to work in a remote school?" asked Nat. Well, like mushrooms, I had an initial thought, "Hmmm, that might be a bit tough", but that thought lasted milliseconds, "Hell ...

The reviews are very   good #JustSaying DWARF mini Smart Telescope  and a Mini Hydraulic Tripod A compact, portable smart telescope ideal for birdwatching, scenic viewing, and beginner astrophotography PLUS (extra) a lightweight, stable tripod designed for the DWARF series.

#7 Ask for what you want. I'd love a large e-ink frame for home, even though I am aware they might not be as good as the shops claim. There are options: KoKonna AI E Ink Frame 28.5" InkPoster Fraimic (large)

I don't actually have any actual physical books but that's no hurdle to me finding these so cute and engaging :) Dreamy Book Hall Fossil Museum Serenity Coffee House Steam Fantasy Motion Scene Magic Shop The Ancient Bar

Look, I just want attention in order that I may pass you effortlessly over to dynomight who asks: Does every question mark deserve a Betteridge? Jul 2026 · #writing #discourse To blog is to get dunked on. I accept this. I even sometimes wonder if I should be grateful, as I suspect my willingness to get dunked on may represent a kind of comparative advantage. (You can tell yourself that if you try to placate the haters, you’ll just ruin things for people who like you. But how do you feel when you’re staring down barrel of a 127 comment thread full of people debating how it’s possible that you’re such an idiot?) Still, there’s one particular species of dunking that puzzles me. For context, Betteridge’s law states: Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no. This is often employed as a sick burn, as in, You titled your article ‘Is this the world’s first gay caveman?’ because it’s not the world’s first gay c...

On Sunday (11th Oct) evening an absolutely stunning lightning storm flashed it's way slowly over Papunya and I managed to capture some of it on my phone camera. The storm started at dusk and continued into the dead of the night so the phone camera struggled to capture the true majesty of it all, but it did a pretty good job. The raw videos are available in a public Google Photos album,  Papunya light show: video (Oct 2026) From the video I frame captured a bunch of great moments,  Papunya light show: Frame capture (Oct 2026) Now, grainy doesn't really cover how the photos look and, whilst the vast majority are ok, some are distinctly poor. I took the frame captures and ran them through Google's Gemini Flash with the following prompt for each: Enhance this photo to be top quality - remove blur etc. - do not substantially alter any of the objects, subjects - do not alter the style of the photograph.  - Make sure you keep it as close to the original as possible So yes, the f...